2025-12-17 12:14

NEW DELHI, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The lower house of Indian parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of an atomic energy bill that will allow private participation in the country's nuclear power sector. The legislation paves the way for a major shift from the existing system where state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India has a monopoly over the sector. Sign up here. It will also allow foreign firms to partner Indian companies and seek licences to set up nuclear power plants. The bill, called the Sustainable Harnessing of Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025, will need approval of the upper house to become law. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/indian-parliament-lower-house-votes-allow-private-firms-nuclear-power-sector-2025-12-17/

2025-12-17 11:45

LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Forget about copper for just a moment. The real bull star on the London Metal Exchange right now is tin, with year-to-date gains of 41% eclipsing even the red metal's 33% price rise. Fund managers have overcome their previous reticence about committing money to such a small, sometimes illiquid market and have accumulated record long positions on the LME tin contract. Sign up here. Rising speculative interest reflects a growing awareness that tin's primary use is no longer mundane sardine cans but circuit boards. No tin, no electronics. A metal that defined the Bronze Age is now critical to the coming Internet-of-Things Age. It is also a market with too much mine production concentrated in too few countries with too much operational risk. The result is a rolling roulette wheel of supply threats. In the current bull mix is Indonesia's escalating clampdown on illegal mining and renewed fighting in the tin-rich eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. What this forgotten critical metal really needs is less investment in the market and more in actually getting the stuff out of the ground. INVESTMENT RISING Investment funds have added spice to the recent LME tin price surge above $40,000 per metric ton. Long positions have more than doubled since May to a record 5,753 contracts, equivalent to 28,765 tons of metal. That doesn't sound much until you consider that LME stocks, both registered and off-warrant, currently total just over 6,000 tons. This speculative enthusiasm for tin has been building for a while. Total fund participation in the London market averaged 1,800 contracts in 2020. The year-to-date average is 4,600 contracts. Tin has clearly been edging onto the broader investment radar, even if it is still a blip next to the likes of copper. Nor is this solely an LME phenomenon. Chinese investors are also joining the bull charge, judging by this month's 60% jump in market open interest on the Shanghai Futures Exchange tin contract. RISK RISING Tin's multiple supply challenges reflect a gradual shift in global production over recent years to higher-risk countries such as the Congo and the semi-autonomous Wa State in Myanmar, where the giant Man Maw mine is only slowly returning from a two-year absence. Include Indonesia's ongoing crackdown on its black-market operators and fuel shortages in Bolivia and the potential supply disruption covers more than 40% of last year's actual output, according to the International Tin Association (ITA). Moreover, existing mines are ageing and grades falling. Smelter utilisation rates are under 60% in China and lower still in Indonesia. Unless things change, a structural supply deficit is "inevitable", Tom Langston, the ITA's senior market intelligence analyst, told attendees at the association's seminar earlier this month. The London meet was titled "Investing in Tin", which is very much to the point. Tin's problem is not a shortage of metal in the ground. The ITA estimates global resources amount to over 22.5 million tons, enough to supply the market for over 50 years. And there's clearly no shortage of smelter capacity available to process more mined concentrate, given the low utilisation rates. It's the bit in between that is the problem. UNDERFUNDED Tin may be garnering more speculative attention, but the world's largest miners haven't been interested for decades and they still aren't. Much of the world's tin mining industry is state-owned, artisanal or, in the case of Indonesia, a bit of both. Indeed, artisanal miners have accounted for most of the biggest tin finds in recent years, from Pitinga in Brazil and Man Maw in Myanmar to the Bisie mine in the Congo. They still account for around 40% of global output. The ITA reckons investment in new tin mines needs to be running around $245 million each year to meet rising demand. The current rate is just $100-150 million. The single biggest roadblock is funding, with tin failing to generate the same sort of investment surge rolling over other new-age metals such as lithium. Tin, to quote Langston, needs to see "bullish sentiment in the speculative market translate into new investment" in actual tin mines. SUPPLY RISK PREMIUM Until that happens, this market is going to remain highly volatile as supply threats loom in and out of view on a recurring basis. The current rally is already in danger of running too far, too fast on speculative froth. Demand is tepid and there is no immediate scarcity of metal. LME stocks have been rising since July and are now close to year-start levels. Shanghai stocks have also been accumulating in recent weeks and at 7,391 tons are slightly higher than they were at the start of January. Tin's new fund friends may be in for a short-term reality check. But tin's supply risk premium will remain and the speculative flows will keep returning until longer-term investors step up to the tin challenge. Andy Home is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI) for thought-provoking, data-driven commentary on markets and finance. Follow ROI on LinkedIn , opens new tab, opens new tab and X , opens new tab, opens new tab. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/funds-fuel-price-rally-tin-needs-investors-different-kind-2025-12-17/

2025-12-17 11:44

BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The European Parliament on Wednesday approved the EU's plan to phase out Russian gas imports by late 2027, clearing the penultimate legal hurdle before the ban becomes law. The EU agreed earlier this month on legislation to cut ties with Europe's former top gas supplier Russia, having vowed to do so after Moscow's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sign up here. Lawmakers voted 500 in favour, 120 against and 32 abstained. The ban still requires formal approval by EU ministers, expected early next year. Officials expect countries to endorse the deal without changes. The law is designed to be approved by a reinforced majority of countries, allowing it to overcome opposition from Hungary and Slovakia, who want to maintain close ties with Moscow. Under the agreement, the EU will halt Russian liquefied natural gas imports by the end of 2026 and pipeline gas by the end of September 2027. As of October, Russia accounted for 12% of EU gas imports, down from 45% before its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Hungary, France and Belgium are among the countries still receiving supplies. The European Commission has said it will also propose legislation in early 2026 to phase out Russian oil imports. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/eu-parliament-approves-phase-out-russian-gas-imports-2025-12-17/

2025-12-17 11:33

LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - By Naomi Rovnick, global markets correspondent. What matters in U.S. and global markets today Sign up here. Wall Street's traditional Santa rally is nowhere to be found as inflation anxiety and geopolitical tensions dominate the market mood. Brent crude is rallying after U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a "blockade" of sanctioned tankers leaving and entering Venezuela, raising fresh geopolitical tensions at a time of concerns over demand. Meanwhile, AI fever is red hot in China, an astonishing IPO debut showed. I'll get into all of the market-moving news below, but first check out Mike Dolan's latest column on how Wall Street analysts's 2025 market calls panned out. Spoiler alert: surprisingly well. And then listen to the latest episode of the new Morning Bid daily podcast. Subscribe to hear Mike and other Reuters journalists discuss the biggest news in markets and finance seven days a week. Today's Market Minute * U.S. President Donald Trump ordered on Tuesday a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in Washington's latest move to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro's government. * Warner Bros Discovery's board could announce a decision as early as Wednesday on Paramount Skydance's $108.4 billion takeover bid, with the board likely to advise shareholders to vote against the offer, according to sources familiar with the matter. * British consumer price inflation fell unexpectedly sharply to 3.2% in November, its lowest since March, from 3.6% in October, a day before the Bank of England is widely expected to cut interest rates. * Britain’s Labour government has two obvious options for boosting a listless economy: an artificial intelligence-driven productivity boom or closer trading ties with the European Union, argues Mike Peacock, the former head of communications at the Bank of England. * China's steel production in November was the weakest month in nearly two years and will ensure that the world's biggest producer of the metal will post its lowest annual output since 2018, writes ROI Asia Commodities columnist Clyde Russell. Inflation Grinch Creeps Up On Wall Street This time of year often brings a Santa rally to Wall Street, yet the S&P 500 share index is heading for its second week of losses and looks set for a tepid open on Wednesday. Bullish positioning has already turned extreme, suggesting investors have opened most of their presents already, and cautious trading this week signals fear that Thursday's U.S. inflation data will be the Grinch that steals whatever is left under the tree. Futures markets are still pricing at least two rate cuts from the Federal Reserve for 2026, but inflation signals are broadening. U.S. jobs growth snapped back in November after a decline in the prior month, and Brent crude futures have jumped 2.1% higher on Wednesday to above $60 a barrel after Trump's fresh threats on Venezuela. That puts geopolitics firmly into the mix of worries for next year, alongside concerns about big tech overspending, private credit risks and inflation. Last week's punitive market response to Broadcom and Oracle's earnings were one sign that AI exuberance is running out. The rapid buildout of new data centers threatens to push up U.S. energy prices, leaving investors fretting that rising costs will put chipmakers' margins under pressure. Asset managers' year-ahead outlooks have been broadly positive on big tech and global economic growth, but questions remain about their plans to add to bullish trades made earlier this year. Bank of America's monthly fund manager survey, published on Tuesday, found investors' positioning was the most positive it has been in three and a half years - raising doubt about whether there are enough buyers left to sustain the trend. BofA's contrarian "Bull & Bear" gauge of market conditions, which flashes red when optimistic sentiment is stretched, is hovering just above the level that signals it is time to sell out. Not everything is gloomy, however, with Britain providing what might have been the most unexpected bright spot of the year. Following the release of lower-than-expected November inflation data, UK debt markets are rallying, with the ten-year gilt yield sharply lower at 4.48% London's FTSE 100, which is stacked with cyclical businesses whose fortunes are pinned to short-term global growth forecasts and inflation-proof miners and commodities producers has raced 1.7% higher on Wednesday morning. The long-overlooked UK index is also heading for its sixth straight month of gains and remains on track to outperform both the S&P 500 and Europe's Stoxx 600 for 2025. Chart of the day Higher inflation could well be the flipside of robust U.S. economic growth, which is running at a healthy clip, with the Atlanta Fed's real-time measure suggesting the next GDP report will show further expansion. That should pile some pressure on the Fed to rethink monetary policy and makes Thursday's inflation report all the more crucial for global markets. Today's events to watch Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles , opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. Want to receive the Morning Bid in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for the newsletter here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/global-markets-view-usa-2025-12-17/

2025-12-17 11:32

KUWAIT, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Oilfield services provider Action Energy Company (ALFTAQA.KW) , opens new tab plans to expand regionally while maintaining a strong focus on its home market, its chairman said on Wednesday, after the company's shares began trading on Kuwait's premier stock market. Founded in 2015, AEC provides drilling, exploration and production, gas injection and maintenance services for oil and gas facilities, wells, refineries and petrochemical plants. Sign up here. The company has "the financial strength to pursue both local and regional growth as part of its strategy", Chairman Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Sabah said at a press conference following the start of trading, without naming specific countries targeted for expansion. The company will continue to prioritise Kuwait, where rising oil production capacity presents major opportunities for oilfield services firms, he added. AEC shares were priced in its initial public offering at 212 Kuwaiti fils each. They rose as high as 260 fils before ending at 240 fils. National Investments Company (NINV.KW) , opens new tab of Kuwait acted as exclusive listing adviser and subscription agent. ($1 = 0.3068 Kuwaiti dinars) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/action-energy-eyes-regional-expansion-after-kuwait-stock-market-listing-2025-12-17/

2025-12-17 11:27

LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to allow UK students to rejoin the bloc's popular student exchange programme Erasmus+, a small but symbolic sign of improved relations after Brexit. The UK contribution for the 2027/28 academic year will be 570 million pounds ($760 million), the British government said, adding that the deal included a 30% discount compared to the default terms under the current trade deal with the EU. Sign up here. The two sides have also agreed to start negotiations on electricity market integration, and have set a deadline to finalise a food and drink trade deal and carbon markets linkage next year, the statement said. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought closer ties with the EU since he was elected last year and he hailed a "new era" in the relationship in May when the two sides agreed the most significant reset of defence and trade ties since the country's departure from the bloc in 2020. Starmer has sought to distinguish his approach from the often tense relations between previous Conservative governments and the EU during the Brexit negotiations. "Today's agreements prove that our new partnership with the EU is working," EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said, calling the Erasmus+ deal "a huge win for our young people". "We have focused on the public's priorities and secured a deal that puts opportunity first," he said. More than 100,000 people in the UK could benefit from the scheme in the first year, the government said. The UK's return to the Erasmus+ scheme, which allows hundreds of thousands of EU students each year to study in another country in the bloc for up to a year, has long been a key EU demand for strengthening ties between the two sides. Britain previously left the programme following Brexit. ($1 = 0.7505 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/uk-will-rejoin-eus-erasmus-student-exchange-scheme-2025-12-17/